THE government’s chief transport adviser, Sir Rod Eddington, favours plans for a new high-speed rail link that could see jet-propelled trains ferrying passengers between Scotland and London in record times.

The new trains would eschew conventional power sources and would instead be fired-up by a jet engine similar to those used in aircraft.

A prototype, capable of travelling at 150mph, has been built in north America but manufacturers believe that, in the right conditions, it could achieve a much higher top speed.

The jet train plan — which some industry experts have dubbed “Eddington’s Rocket” — would cut journey times between London and cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Virgin Pendolinos, operating at 125mph, are currently the fastest trains running up and down the country.

Eddington, the former boss of British Airways, is considering a new north-south high-speed link as part of a long-term review of Britain’s transport needs.

Tasked with looking beyond 2015, he will present his findings directly to Gordon Brown, the chancellor, and Alistair Darling, the transport secretary, this summer.

Eddington has previously claimed that fast trains would be preferable to many domestic flights. “Everyone should be taking the train,” he said.

“People would not need to fly across Britain if the rail service was faster.”

With passenger journeys forecast to rise by 28% in the next decade, Darling is keen to free up capacity on existing tracks. The east coast main line from Edinburgh to London, for example, is already struggling to accommodate extra services.

Eddington believes a new high-speed link may provide a solution to this congestion and has discussed its feasibility with John Armitt, chief executive of Network Rail.

He has also consulted officials at Bombardier, the Canadian maker of the jet train, and at Ultraspeed, a company that is proposing a magnetic levitation — or maglev — system for Britain. Ultraspeed claims its train could reach speeds of 311mph.

A team of experts at Network Rail are now weighing up the merits of the competing technologies, as well as conventional high-speed trains such as the TGV in France, which travels at speeds of up to 186mph.

An earlier report on high-speed rail envisaged a £33 billion line from Edinburgh to London with a branch from the West Midlands to Manchester.

One of the biggest expenses associated with conventional high-speed rail systems is the need to electrify the entire line.

The main advantage of the jet train is its autonomous power source — a 3,750kW gas turbine — which is much lighter than a diesel engine.

However, this would only achieve maximum efficiency over longer distances. The turbine is also noisy and relies on expensive aviation fuel.

Plans for a driverless maglev system — presented to Tony Blair in 2004 — involve carriages floating on electromagnetic “cushions” above a fixed guideway.

Ultraspeed is proposing a £29 billion network that would join London to cities in the north of England and Scotland.

Critics, however, claim maglev systems draw vast quantities of power and question the durability of the technology.

The only commercial use of maglev is a 19-mile stretch linking Pudong airport to the outskirts of Shanghai in China. Government officials are believed to have reservations about a technology that has not been tested on longer routes.

But Adrian Lyons, director-general of the Railway Forum, an industry group, who has been consulted by Eddington, has no doubts about the benefits of a high-speed line.

“We have seen in Europe that when you put a high-speed line in and shrink the distance between a capital and an outlying city . . . there are significant changes in the economic fortunes of the region,” he said.

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